Tag Archives: librarians

Briefing: Education Reform and the SKILLs Act: An Analysis of Twenty-First Century School Libraries and Their Impact on Career and College Preparedness

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Education Reform and the SKILLs Act: An Analysis
of Twenty-First Century School Libraries
and Their Impact on Career and College Preparedness

October 17th, 2011

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL),
a division of the American Library Association
In conjunction with Representative Rush Holt and Senator Jack Reed

Cordially invite you to a briefing:

Education Reform and the SKILLs Act: An Analysis of Twenty-First Century School Libraries and Their Impact on Career and College PreparednessMonday, October 17th, 2011
10:00-11:00 am
121 Cannon House Office Building

Speakers

  • Carl Harvey, School Librarian, North Elementary School, Indiana
  • Donna L. Haye, Assistant Superintendent, Atlantic City Public Schools, New Jersey
  • William A. Mayer, University Librarian, American University, Washington D.C.
  • Kathy Mortimer, Parent, Henrico County Public Schools, Virginia
  • Connie Williams, National Board Certified Teacher Librarian, Petaluma High School, California

School libraries are no longer just for books. Instead they have become sophisticated 21st century learning environments, offering a full range of resources that provide equal learning opportunities to all students. S. 1328, the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries (SKILLs) Act, supports and sustains 21st century school libraries by ensuring that every school is served by a state-certified school librarian and has access to the resources our students need to succeed and prepare for the future. As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it is crucial that the SKILLs Act is included in the plan for education reform. This briefing will feature a panel of experts who will discuss the important services that are provided under the SKILLs Act to promote literacy and career and college preparedness for our nation’s students.

Please RSVP to Kaytee Lozier at klozier@advocacyassociates.com or             202-349-1030       by October 12th.

Visit the AASL website: www.ala.org/aasl/

School Libraries Worldwide Current Call for Papers

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Current Call for Papers

School Libraries Worldwide is the official professional and research journal of the International Association of School Librarianship. It is published twice yearly, in January and July, and is available online and through select periodical databases. School Libraries Worldwide publishes new works of current research and scholarship on any aspect of school librarianship. All papers are double-blind peer reviewed and adhere to the highest editorial standards.

Connections: Linking learning, leadership, technology, information, and society through school libraries (Volume 18, Number 1, January 2012)

This issue of School Libraries Worldwide will center on the theme of Connections: School librarians linking learning, leadership, technology, and society. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his influential book The Tipping Point (2001), “Connectors are the people who “link us up with the world … people with a special gift for bringing the world together” (pp. 38, 41). For this issue, we use this definition as our point of departure in considering the many connecting roles of school libraries and librarians. We encourage papers that both affirm and extend this initial definition.

This issue will provide an opportunity for researchers to share their work relating to connections and connectors in school libraries.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  • School librarians as agents who link home and school;
  • School libraries as places where children build connections between learning and their roles in society;
  • School librarians as ambassadors of broadband Internet and mobile devices;
  • School librarians as promoters of transliteracy in context;
  • School librarians as connectors across cultural, social, professional and ethnic boundaries;
  • The interplay between school libraries and digital libraries or virtual learning environments.

School library researchers are invited to submit papers reporting their own original research that has not been published elsewhere. Authors who wish to know more about the issue theme should contact the editors to discuss revision.

School Libraries Worldwide also welcomes submissions of excellent research on any topic relating to school librarianship for the open portion of the journal.

Deadline for submissions of full papers: September 20, 2011.
Authors interested in contributing to this issue should contact the editors, Marcia Mardis and Nancy Everhart at slw@cci.fsu.edu

Submission guidelines are available online at School Libraries Worldwide submission guidelines (http://www.iasl-online.org/pubs/slw/slw_guidecontrib.html)

Submissions and suggestions for the journal should be sent to:

Dr. Marcia A. Mardis and Dr. Nancy Everhart
Editors, School Libraries Worldwide
School of Library and Information Science
College of Communication & Information
The Florida State University
Tallahassee FL 32306-2100 USA
Fax: 1 (780) 492-7622
E-mail: slw@cci.fsu.edu

Marcia A. Mardis, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor
Associate Director, The PALM Center
College of Communication & Information
The Florida State University

Co-Editor
School Libraries Worldwide
Official Journal of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL)

mmardis@fsu.edu

State Listservs for Georgia Librarians

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CC image via http://bit.ly/czxwWy

Are you subscribed to the following helpful channels of communication for Georgia librarians?

Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
GLMA Communications Chair

Things that keep you going…

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It’s been a hectic, wonderful, crazy beginning to yet another school year. Here are some of the finer points (think I’d advertise the bad ones?:) that keep me going when I feel like I’ll never catch up:

  • We lost one clerk because of budget cuts, but we still have an awesome team of three to run our high school media center. We are fortunate.
  • We have done SO many 9th grade orientations. I could do it in my sleep. But we’ve gotten good at it. And even though our feeder school’s library looks fancy-shmancy compared to ours, we can usually turn students around by the end of orientation. “This library looks so small” and “Where the second floor?” often turn into “I think I’m going to like this place,” and “Oooh…I’ve been wanting to read this book” and “We can really check out five books at a time?”
  • I don’t know how many checkouts we’ve done (currently at home sick with one sick child too) but it’s about a zillion. Ok, that might be exaggerating…a half zillion. Trust me, it’s a big number.
  • We helped with revamping a couple of our summer reading lists. I had a senior tech student come in and want to see the list again. I assumed he hadn’t finished his summer reading book. “Oh no; I just liked it and wanted another.” My inner dork did a happy dance. (For the record, no actual dancing happened. I have learned that scares high school students away.)
  • We assisted with three research projects by the 8th day of school. It’s going to be a busy year.

We’ve dealt with little air conditioning, no air conditioning, lots of administrative requests, two of our small staff have sent their “babies” off to college, I sent my oldest to Pre-K, I’ve been sick, my youngest is sick, and it’s day 11. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings! I hope all of you out there are getting some good with the crazy that is inevitably the start of the school year. You may be feeling overwhelmed and under-appreciated, but know that what you do is incredibly important, even if you don’t hear it every day. Good luck and happy 2010-11!

Holly Frilot, Library Media Specialist

Collins Hill High School

www.chhsmediacenter.com

Overheard at the library

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CHHS Library Happenings:

Scene 1:

Me: Uh-oh. City of Bones is pulling ahead of Hunger Games in our March Madness Book Bracket.

Student: NOOOOOOOOO!  (Busily seeks friends to vote.)


Scene 2:

Student: I need a book I can read by Monday. And prom’s Saturday.

Me: Ok. Short. Got it.

Student: Teacher says it has to be more than 150 pages.

Me: Ok. Like sports?

Student: No.

Me: Ok. What do you like?

Student: Chaos.

Me. Ok. Hmmmm…. Have you read Fight Club?

Student: That was a book?

Me: Yes.

Student: And we have it here?

Me: Yes. Unfortunately it’s checked out right now. But I do have another book of his…

Student: Cool. I’ll take it. Thanks library lady.

Me: Good. Come back when you’re finished and we’ll find another. I’m Mrs. Frilot by the way.  (Resisted urge to tell him to be careful at prom.)


Scene 3: (In hallway near “Have You Read This? flyer near boys’ locker room)

Student 1: Yo, check this out – this book looks good!

Student 2: Dude, I’m gonna go get this one.

(Reported by a math teacher hanging out nearby. Very grateful to him for passing it along!)


Scene 4: (Teaching a class in the media center.)

Me: Photostory 3 is a cool, easy way to tell a story. It’s kind of Powerpoint meets a photo screensaver.

Students: (A librarian knows nothing about cool.)

Me: Here’s an example.

Students: (Grunts of interest and mild surprise.)

Me: (Illustrating first few steps.)

Students: (Interest building.) Huh. Pretty cool.

Me: (Yes! I’ve got ‘em. Finish illustrating. Talk about music. Show final product.)

One student: (Actually jumps up.) This is so awesome! I know what I’m going to do!

Me: (Suppressing chuckle.) A Photostory fan! Let’s get on the computers.

I cherish the day-to-day life that goes on in the media center. It is a fun, surprising, challenging place to be. There are days when I get down about the future of libraries and all that might be wasted. There are days when I get frustrated with discipline issues and old equipment. But there are days when I get to teach. There are days when I get to brainstorm with teachers or students. And there are days I help good kids learn new things. There’s just not much better than that.

Holly Frilot

Library Media Specialist, Collins Hill High School

www.chhsmediacenter.com

justshelveit.wordpress.com

New Online GALILEO Orientations Scheduled!

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Dear GALILEO users,
 
A summer schedule for orientation sessions covering the new GALILEO 
interfaces is now available. The training will cover new features, 
review other useful features, and offer tips for best search results. 
The orientation sessions are free to staff in Georgia libraries and 
media centers.  For more information and to register for classes, please 
visit http://www.usg.edu/galileo/help/library/training/
  
K-12 Interfaces Orientation (High School, Teen, Kids*)
     June 24, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
     July 22, 2:00-3:00 p.m.
     August 20, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
 
 
Library Interface (Public Library/General User)
     June 25, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
     July 23, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
     August 19, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
 
 
Scholar Interface Orientation
     June 25, 2:00-3:00 p.m.
     July 22, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
     August 19, 2:00-3:00 p.m.
 
 
* The new interface for elementary students is in development, but we 
will look at the current Kids interface in the training sessions.
 
If you have any questions or need more information, please use GALILEO's 
Contact Us feature or contact OIIT Customer Services at helpdesk@usg.edu.
 
Regards,
Karen
 
____________________________________________
Karen Minton
GALILEO Support Services
Library Services
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
2500 Daniells Bridge Road, Building 300
Athens, GA 30606-3539
Phone: 888- 875-3697     Fax: (706) 583-2294
karen.minton@usg.edu     http://www.galileo.usg.edu
_______________________________________________
Galileo mailing list
Galileo@mailbox.gsu.edu

http://mailbox.gsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/galileo

Super Cool Web 2.0 Tool Just for Librarians: Catalog Card Generator!

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I stumbled across this fun and oh so librarian 2.0 tool yesterday!  Go to http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/ and fill in the fields to crank up your very own catalog card!  Yes!  If you don’t like the way it looks, just hit F5 to refresh, and you will see slight changes in the fonts, tint, and handwriting style.  When you are happy with the results, right click on the image and save to your computer.

You have the option of making a “traditional” print card, an audio card, or even a video card! 

How cool is this?  This is great little tool for creating a PR graphic for your library or any special programs your media center may be promoting.  :-)

card3.jpg

Buffy Hamilton, Ed.S.
Creekview High School
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com